Silver on Silver
by LunarBlade Valentine
Summary: When Rose gets invited to one of her old friends' wedding, the doctor reluctantly drops her off. A short story of the relationships in Rose's life, new and old, her love of the doctor and the dangers and being together and apart.
1. Chapter 1

Silver on Silver

**A 10th Doctor and Rose fanfic**

Author: LunarBlade  
Timeline: This takes place sometime during Season 2, I suppose, and makes references to The Feast of the Drowned book by Stephen Cole. It's a good Doctor Who book, but my favorite is by far The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner.  
Notes: I've sort of generally turned away from writing fanfiction, but last April a co-worker introduced me to Doctor Who for the first time, and I fell in love with the whole thing. Especially with Tennant and Rose's love story, which I think is one of the best-told love stories I've ever saw, hand-in-a-jar and everything included. So I felt compelled to write a little short something.

This is going to be a short, multi-chapter story, and I hope you enjoy. If well received I could definitely be convinced to write some more of these two. They're just too wonderful!

As ever, English isn't my first language, so please let me know with any glaring grammar/spelling issues!

* * *

"Do you have to answer that right now?!" The doctor demanded, running for his life alongside Rose. He had her hand in one of his, and in the other he wielded his sonic screwdriver like a magic wand.  
Rose was panting, rushing under and over rusted pipes. The decrepit service shaft around her groaned when his blue light made vents burst with steam, confusing their enemies and granting them a few more moments of safe escape. She pressed her phone to her ear, hoping very much it wasn't her mum calling...  
"'Allo?" He breathed. The doctor gave her a look, obviously disagreeing that this was mobile phone time.  
"Oh my god, it actually got through!" Exclaimed the voice on the other side. Steam and gunshots prevented positive identification. The pair rounded a corner, and the doctor soniced the heavy metal door behind them shut. They were trapped, though, as the room they had entered was something like a large supply closet, with brooms and mops and buckets stacked carelessly against rust-red walls.  
"Hello? Sorry, who's this?" Rose asked, trying to catch her breath as the doctor leaned on his knees, just breathing and chuckling to himself.  
"It's Keish, stupid!" Now, in the relative quiet of the room, she could hear her better. "This isn't going to cost me long distance, is it?" She added. Keisha was one of Roses closest friends, back in the day. It wasn't even that long ago, really, now that she thought about it. Things have change between them, they've changed as people.  
"No, Keish, it won't. I got... a special mobile plan, I do." She smiled at the doctor, who smiled back.  
"Listen, Rose, I know you're still out and about travlin', so you probably didn't get the invite..."  
A loud hammering startled them both, the creatures on the other side trying to force their way in.  
"What invite?" Rose asked, clamping one hand on her ear and stepping as far away from the door as a small room allowed. The doctor was, she could only guess, fighting back; flashing his screwdriver at points in the solid metal wall that made sense only to him.  
"What's that racket?" Keisha asked, Rose could tell she was practically yelling into the phone on her end.  
"...We're just passing by a construction site." She blurted out. "What's this about an invite?"  
"I knew you didn't get it!" Keisha laughed, "Too busy these days even to RSVP for your best mate's wedding!"  
"Wha? Get out!"  
She leaned on the wall, and the doctor mouthed the words 'are you done?' silently and impatiently. The creatures outside were after their lives. Still, Rose just waved at him to leave her alone for a sec and cupped her mouth towards the phone so that Keisha would hopefully hear better.  
"I'm getting married on Saturday! This Saturday!"  
"Oh my god! Shut up!" Rose laughed lightheartedly, "That's amazing! Can I still come?"  
"Of course! It's why I called, dummy! It's at the Blair Estate outside Glasgow!"  
Rose's jaw dropped,  
"That's in Scotland- and how did you afford the Blair Estate?!"  
"Rose!" The urgency in his voice finally convinced her. He was grabbing on to a level in the door, and it was being attempted from the other side, too. His feet were scuttling in spot, trying to keep it from moving.  
"Look, my train is here- I'll call ya in a bit and consider me in!"  
She only had time to hear Keisha confirm that Rose's mum and Mickey were attending, and she hung up and ran to help the doctor.  
The second she grabbed the handle, he dashed away.  
"Keep holding that!" He commanded, gesturing at the door as if it might not have been clear what she was to hold on to. He started rifling through the mops, exclaiming some of them 'no good', or 'not enough'.  
Having travelled with the doctor for almost two years now, Rose Tyler was used to almost all of his eccentricities, and trusted him without fault.  
Not that he was without fault, heavens no. He drove her mad sometimes, but she knew without a doubt that she would travel with him forever.  
Eventually he found two mops that had whatever mysterious property he was looking for when he flashed her his 1000 watt grin, tossing her one.  
"You can let go now, Rose." He beamed, holding out the mop like a spear, "Our way out shall be carved with muddy waters!" He laughed.  
The door opened. They charged.

A screech, like an old gate opening and closing, opening and closing... The TARDIS materialized.  
Rose stepped out, dressed casually with a small duffle for supplies. There was a small town around her, the outskirts of the Blair Estate. It was a 5-star hotel and Keisha has gotten all her guests rooms at a steal.  
This information was obtained earlier from Rose's mum, who was coming in with Mickey in his car first thing tomorrow morning. They agreed to meet at the hotel. This left her only one problem: the doctor.  
He was leaning in the entrance of the TARDIS, arms crossed over his chest, ever in his coat and pinstiped suit. His face was stern, and she knew him well enough by now, and knew by the way he stood, by his eyes and by his silence that he was agitated.  
Mad with her. And frankly, she was angry that he was angry.  
"Look," They both said at the same time. She turned to face him. He let her speak with a wave of his hand.  
"Look," She started again, "You can't just expect me to ditch everyone here." She pointed out matter of fact, trying to control her temper. "I know you don't do 'domestics', but this is one of my oldest mates' wedding!"  
"Boring." He declared, looking away like he was getting bored just thinking about it. "Why do you even want to attend after all the stuff she's done?" He carefully kept his tone uninterested.  
"I don't understand you." She huffed, "She's still my mate. She apologized for all the stuff back then."  
She apologized, Rose reminded herself, apologized about the whole terrible mess with Mickey and for the whole terrible mess with The Ascendant...  
"This is the Keish who got you turned into a fish! Ha, rhyme!" He said. He was referring to an incident perhaps half a year ago, where the crippled navy vessal The Ascendant was towed into port and people were being taken as egg-carriers for an aquatic alien invasion force. Rose was one of those people, and Keisha and been sort-of-kind-of directly involved.  
"Yes, Keish who turned me into a fish." She smiled sardonically. She remember that incident very clearly. "She's still my mate."  
"I'm still your mate." He protested, not unkindly. But he was trying to pull her away from an event of importance in her life. Why? Because he was the doctor, and he didn't do domestics.  
"Look, are you that lonely that you can't be away from me for forty-eight hours? The wedding's tomorrow, and you can come back Sunday morning." There was a flash of hurt in his eyes, but he was asking her to forget about her old life, and not for an emergency, but for the oceans of Yatoosh, where they are apparently ever changing in color. Not for a dying race in need of rescuing, no. For shiny water.  
"I just want to attend something normal for once. My mate's wedding, it's not like the oceans will be gone by Sunday!" She resisted the urge to stamp her foot, having to remind herself that she was now in her twenties, no longer a teen. "Keish will never talk to me again if I miss it, alrigh'?"  
He remained sullen and silent. And she knew, knew with unerring certainty why he didn't want her going. She wasn't stupid, and she knew him all too well.  
"Look, why don't you come, too?" He immediately straightened, shook his head,  
"Oh, no no nonono..." He pursed his lips, "Too dull for me, and celebrating with a bunch o' humans... and not my favorite humans, either."  
"This is important to me!" She said, louder than she intended. "Don't make me choose between you and my old life!" His eyes widened for a moment, then he said, "No, no. I won't make you choose." he scowled and reminded her a lot of his old face, his old taciturn nature. "You go and do your human thing." He waved a dismissive hand, and she wanted to strangle him, "I'll be back Sunday."  
"Ugh!" She screamed as he slammed the door shut, she actually stamped her foot this time, her frustration too much. The TARDIS didn't vanish right away, and Rose turned to leave. She paused for a moment when she took in her surroundings. It was early summer, so there was still a chill in the early morning air. The path the TARDIS was parked alongside was an old dirt road, leading from a small cluster of classic-looking houses and towards the hotel right round the corner. The whole place looked like something out of the 1950's with the exception of the hotel round a lane of trees, which was converted from an old scottish castle. Trees blocked out pale sunlight, and grassy hills rolled towards the horizon. The lampposts were aged, probably from the same time period of the houses, and well preserved. She actually burst out laughing when she saw an honest-to-god police box right across and slightly further down the path from the TARDIS. It was nearly identical, perhaps a few more dings and scratches than the disguised spaceship. She turned to knock on the TARDIS' doors and show the doctor, but remembered that she was angry with him and that he was being daft, and she started towards the hotel, already pulling out her mobile to text Keisha that she had arrived.  
A flick of motion caught her attention, and when she looked up from her mobile the path was deserted. She did note that the TARDIS had left. Sighing and trying to sooth her frayed nerves, she left.

It took too many embraces to get Keisha to acknowledge that she was actually there. She kept on disbelieving it, and hugging Rose again each time she saw her. Her voice was an octave higher, and she couldn't seem to sit still for more than three seconds, so Rose attributed it to pre-marital jitters.  
Rose was given a room (with a queen-sized bed, and Kiesha made sure to give her a wink), and she was standing idly in it, suddenly not sure what to do.  
Was the doctor alright on his own? Was he going to come back?  
Of course he was going to come back, she scolded herself, but... but in her mind she saw Sarah-Jane's puppy-like eyes, her admonish that he had abandoned her. She had waited for him for years and years and he left and never meant to come back for her. Was this her Sarah-Jane moment? Had she just lost the most important thing in her life over Keisha's wedding?  
She sat down heavily on the bed, rubbing her face in her palms. She couldn't think like that, had to trust the doctor, just like always.  
But Sarah-Jane, she trusted the doctor, too...  
She wanted him to be here with her. Wanted his presence like a drowning person wanted a lifeboat to cling to, and it's only been a few hours since she'd last seen him! She suddenly craved nothing more than to be in his arms, even though last time she saw him she didn't want to even say goodbye. Felt strangely weak for thinking that. Was she clingy? Dependant?  
She felt stronger when he was around, but it was more like she felt stronger because he existed, because she existed in a capacity that was important to him. Was that the sort of weakness women weren't supposed to have anymore? Was it even a weakness at all?  
A knock on the door made her jump and yelp, and she blushed when the door opened with a tentative, "Sorry!" from the other side.  
It was Roger, Keisha's fiance. Rose was very briefly introduced to him when she had arrived, and understood that he was bloody rich and it was his pocket that was being dipped into for the accommodations, ceremony, and travel expenses. She figured he must really love Keisha to spend all this money to invite her veritable army of friends. At least that.  
She shook his hand, suddenly awkward and uncertain.  
He was a tall man, with dark-coffee skin and laughing brown eyes. He was apparently in training to become an airline pilot, after his stint in the military.  
"So strange to meet you a day before the wedding!" He exclaimed after he had entered. He started using her hotel room's lavish in-suite kitchenette to make them both a cup of tea. Rose sat at the little dining table (made for two) and couldn't seem to get her mind into the excited tizzy she assumed it would take at her friend's nuptials. Roger continued, "She talks about you a lot, you know, all the crazy stuff you did in highschool."  
Rose managed a smile. It felt like it had all happened to another girl, looked upon through a time-portal. At her quiet he asked, bringing two cups of tea to the table,  
"Did you really punch out Kevin Hardy 'cause he pinched Keish's ars?" Here she broke into a surprised laugh.  
"Yeah, yeah I did, didn't I? It was ages ago!"  
"Only two years ago," he smiled, "but after highschool everything in highscool does feels a million years away, doesn't it?"  
She felt a pain in her chest. She's been to a million years from now, hasn't been to a million years ago. Wanted to be in the TARDIS, not here, awkwardly drawing conversation from a stranger...  
"So," She tried, "How'd you two meet?"  
"She hasn't told you?" He seemed surprised, maybe a little hurt.  
"Oh! No, it's just that I haven't really... Haven't really called in a while. Been tranvelin', you know."  
"Yeah, she mentioned you just up and gone with some bloke travelling." Did he know about the doctor? What had Keisha told him about the Feast of the Drowned incident? She forced a calming breath, even while her mind was shouting out warnings that this man might not be what he seemed. Could be an alien, got to Keisha as a way to get to her and the doctor...  
"Well, as for me and Keish," The smile on his face was completely smitten as he recalled, and Rose forced herself to relax. "I served for a while with her brother." He said.  
"Oh, yeah, Jay. He's arriving tomorrow, right?"  
"Yeah, it'd be good to see him again." Then he continued, "See, he had a picture of his sister in his wallet and one time we went to the base's store to get a snack, and I see this gorgeous girl all over him in the picture, right?"  
His smile was infectious and Rose found her own grin not so hard to maintain anymore,  
"Then I hear him talking to his sister on the phone, but I don't connect it, right? I mean who'd think that that hottie was actually his sister? But I couldn't get that picture out of my mind." He shook his head, mind in the story, "I kept on finding excuses for him to open his wallet." He made a voice that was supposed to mimic his own, "'Hey, bro, when does your driver's license expire?'"  
"That's a weak one!" She laughed in earnest now, and he did, too.  
"Yeah, can you believe it took him a month to catch on to me?"  
"It took him a whole month?" She laughed with incredulity. He nodded, wiping his eyes from tears of mirth.  
"Yeah, for a month I snuck peeks at what I thought was his girlfriend was feeling like such a sleaze... He told me 'mate! That's my sister you're droolin' ovah!'" He calmed down some, breathed a long 'hooooo' out of his mouth, "Then she came to visit him, just before he got assigned to The Ascendant. It was love at first sight, for me anyway." He chuckled again, "Took her longer to see me for the first time." He winked, and Rose smiled.  
They paused, sipped their tea. "That was a right mess, The Ascendant." she said, mostly to herself. She thought of the doctor then, beaten around and tired. Thought of all the other times they barely made it out alive. Thought of how eagerly he always presented himself as sacrifice, knowing that he could make it, maybe hoping one time to prove himself wrong. Didn't matter to him either way, sometimes.  
As if reading her mind, or maybe just wanting to perpetuate the conversation and make good with his soon-to-be-wife's friend, he asked,  
"So, you're travelling! That's exciting. What brought that about?"  
Behind her mouth the story of 'I have had my department store exploded by a nine-hundred year old alien whom I've been travelling with in a blue police box. Also, I'm completely smitten with him.' played out. The corrected version of the story is what she said, "After the shop blew up-"  
"I heard about that! A couple of years ago, now!" She nodded. In comparison to everything she'd seen and done, it was actually not all that exciting anymore. A footnote in a long series of things exploding. It was just the first.  
"After it blew up I decided that life was too short, and that I wanted to travel. You could say I was being rebellious."  
"I heard you disappeared for a year..." His face became compassionate, "Keish still talks about that time."  
Rose didn't mention anything about that. Too much emotional baggage with it, still. The doctor travelled with no baggage, she realized, not the physical type, and he did his darndest to leave the emotional baggage behind as often as distractions allowed.  
"Yeah, been travelling since."  
"With a bloke, I hear." He gave her a lopsided grin, as if urging her to share a great secret. They've been hanging out for maybe half and hour, and this man was fast becoming one of her favorites. She couldn't help but smile at this line of questioning, "I met him that same day. He gave me the idea to travel and we've been travelling together."  
"Together, together?" He eyed her from the corner of his twinkling eyes. Again she was nearly overcome by the desire to protect the doctor, not to speak of him, to figure out if this man had any ulterior motives. But even as she felt that, she could find nothing in the conversation that would be unusual for two strangers to discuss.  
"No, well..." She gave him a rueful smile, "Not on his end, no. You could say he still hasn't seen me for the first time." She used his phrase with a grin.  
"Aw, here here." He smiled, not with pity but with earnest hope, "I'm sure the bloke will come 'round. Keish says the few times she met him he was awful clever. He'll figure it out."  
"Rog, where are ye?" Came the call from the corridor. He had never really closed the door, and his best man was looking for him.  
They both peeked their heads out, and his best man, a young man she had been briefly introduced to during her arrival was waiting, smiling. His smile got a lot more playful when they approached,  
"Oh, going for the town blonde are we?" He jibed, poking Roger in the ribs with a sagacious grin, "Keish said she was the hottie of the Powell estate."  
Rose smiled, although she didn't care for the way he was eyeing her. Keish had tried really hard to mend bridges, but Rose... Rose had her own life now. It wasn't Keisha's mistakes that drove her away from her friendship, it was growing up and realizing how small she was and how large the universe was. Suddenly it made the whole 'social drama' thing lose its appeal. She didn't want any of it. She cared for Keisha, but she didn't care enough to stop travelling just so that they could go over to the pub and Keish could tell her all of the gossip about the girls they graduated with.  
The doctor hated it when she talked about her old life, and eventually she almost started using it to her advantage, whenever she wanted to distract herself or him. The moment she'd start telling a story that didn't involve those humans the doctor knew already, like Mickey or her mum, he'd find a way to tell her about some place they need to go see, or a people she might enjoy meeting or a marvelous place he'd seen once. She knew why he did it. He never said it, but she knew and it broke her heart. Pissed her right off sometimes, too.  
She guessed even the doctor had to travel with some baggage, after so long.  
"Come off it." Was her answer to the complement. It almost felt weird to be in her timeline. The 'slow path' as the doctor called it. Almost strange to be amongst people who knew her and she had history with.

The rest of the day was busy. There were still preparations to be made, and old friends to meet up with, and even Rose found that tizzy she thought she would not attain. For minutes at a time she was just Rose Tyler from the Powell estate. And she laughed at lewd old jokes and remembered anecdotes of highschool. And she saw how absolutely insane her life had become in comparison. These people spoke of jobs and mates and drinking binges and parents. They spoke of grand adventures to the new mall or a vacation to Paris.  
Paris. She'd have to ask the doctor to go there one day.  
She didn't look down at these people, couldn't. They were just people. She's met so many just people and something of the doctor's love for 'just people' infected her. This is what life was made of, and she got to see it. "Everyone can 'see' life." The doctor had said one time, "Even blind people. But you and I," here he had leaned forward and did that little wiggle with his shoulders as his smile spread like a rising sun, wrinkling the corners of his eyes, "We get to see people seeing life. We get to realize how amazing they really are."  
She had a blast, really.

It was late into the evening, preparations complete. Keisha, Rose and a few other of their old girl friends from highschool were lounging in the hotel bar. Since it was bad luck for her and Roger to meet the night before, the guys headed to a pub a short drive away.  
"Mickey will cry that he missed a pub crawl!" Rose laughed.  
"Mickey? Is he still hanging about you?" Tanika asked with a big grin. Rose hadn't seen her since grad. She was a mocha-skinned beauty with big pouty lips. She had spent a year after school travelling and immediately assumed that Rose and her were kindred spirits. Upon their meeting she suggested that Rose and her went on a skiing trip to the Canadian Rockies together. Rose had given a noncommittal reply.  
She smacked her arm playfully, thanking the server when he brought them another round of drinks.  
"Yeah, we're still really good friends." Rose said, her heart tightening despite herself. Not only did the whole 'doctor' thing put Mickey and her in an awkward spot, but Keisha's history with him was bound to sully the evening.  
...It was part of the reason he chose to arrive for the wedding day itself. Rose caught Keisha's worried look and changed the subject,  
"Aren't you worried about your Fred, Fred?" She asked the girl across the table. Fred (Short for Frederica) was a freckled blond who's glasses always seemed too big for her head. As a teen it made her look awkward and nerdy, but as an adult, and with her hair up like that it made her look like a hot librarian.  
They ordered another round.  
"I trust Fred-" (Short for Ferdinand) "-Impeccably." She said, lifting her nose at the rest of the girls and sipping her wine. She was, until the next day, at least, the only one amongst them to marry. She married her highschool sweetheart and had seemed to care more about one-upping her friends than she did that he was a bum.  
"I'm sure all those strippers will trust him, too!" Laughed Tanika, "Or was that 'thrust him'...?" The girls laughed.  
"So tell us about your trips!" Encouraged Shauna, the last other girl to join them. She was curly ginger that they actually used to dislike in middle-school, but once in highschool she joined their little clique.  
Thankfully, Tanika thought she was talking to her and started to tell them about her backpacking through Europe. She kept on looking to Rose to confirm or add an anecdote, but the latter mostly just nodded or muttered "Yeah..."  
"I got to say," Tanika said with such airs of worldliness, "that my favorite must have been the Pantheon in Greece. Have you been?" Here she actually directed the question to Rose herself. Yeah, she'd been. It wasn't completed yet and they were building it on a rift. The doctor said that's why they were building it there, they thought it was a holy place, but what they were seeing where psychic projections of the rift's fractal dimensions. They had to stop a creature bourne of that energy (it looked like a minotaur) from emerging and claiming to be Zeus himself. It wasn't one of their better adventures, with the doctor getter batted around by the thing while Rose worked to loosen an unsupported column to drop on the thing's head. The doctor loves running, but there are things even he isn't fast enough to dodge. He laughed it off, of course.  
"Yeah, loved it." Rose said, plastering a smile on her face.  
The drinks kept on coming.  
Rose was still nursing her second drink. The talk of travels made her anxious again, and the previous drink wasn't sitting well with her.  
What if he wasn't coming back...?  
"I heard you're travelling with a bloke twice your age...!" Shauna whispered conspiratorially. At least, she meant to, but the girls were pretty drunk, so she practically yelled it. All eyes were suddenly on her. Tanika's were curious, Shuana's were eager for gossip, Fred's were condescending and Keisha's were narrowed.  
"Umm... He's not that much older." She said, hoping that he'd come back with the same face and still at least look only in his early thirties. She couldn't very well tell them the truth!  
"Your mum said, while you were... travelling that first time" This was Fred, looking into her drink down her long, narrow nose, "that he looked like an old U boat commander."  
Yeah, he did a little, before.  
"She was just angry with him." Dismissed Rose with a forced laugh, "He used to wear this jacket that was-"  
"What he like? Are you cheating on Mickey with him?" Shauna was far too drunk to be held accountable for how much she was enjoying herself, not realizing the way her words came out. The other girls were looking at her.  
"It's not really like that." She protested, keeping the corners of her mouth up as much as she could. "We're not a 'thing'. And Mickey and I... We're taking a break."  
"Does he know it, before bringing your mum all the way to Scotland?" That was Keisha, and Rose sent her a glare.  
"Yeah, yeah." She said, trying, oh trying so hard to remain cheery. "We're mates, we're good." She wanted to change the subject, and asked Kiesha, "How's Jay doing?"  
Maybe that was a low blow, as it was Rose and the doctor who saved her brother back then. Saved the whole damn world. Again.  
Keisha's jovial marriage mood seemed to have been washed away by the alcohol, and she drawled back,  
"Oh, he's fine. Sticks around and helps, has a real girlfriend, and doesn't make up stories like some people."  
It was immature and stupid. It shouldn't have bothered her, but it did. All of her travels and all she'd seen, and there was one of her oldest friends still doubting and giving her crap. Here was something she thought would be stable and constant, and she was being attacked.  
The other girls all fell silent, glancing now at the rising tension.  
"Keish," Rose said carefully, "That's not nice. I'm not lying." Maybe she could still diffuse this. Keish was drunk, but the words still stung.  
"No pictures, no souvenirs, barely even a tan! You were here the whole time. When The Ascendant happened you just happened to be 'round? Gimme a break!" Keish insisted, looking away with so much resentment and bitterness in her features... it hurt more than the words.  
"I've been travlin' all this time, Keish." She laughed it off unconvincingly. "I think you had too much to drink."  
The other girls were just looking, and Rose wanted to beat each one of them up in a different way. None of them were trying to stand up for her, or even for Keish. They just wanted dinner and a show, just like when they'd go to pubs and stand there and watch each other fool around, or make a fool of themselves before the boys.  
Gods, and she was just like that, too. Laughed at them behind their backs and made an idiot out of herself in turn.  
"I don't need to prove anything." Rose said, mostly to the other girls. "I know I made a mistake not calling all that time, but I-"  
"I know why you didn't call or write." Keish interrupted, her eyes slightly glazed and unfocused. Her anger was focused enough.  
"You never went anywhere! I talked to Mickey and even he was all dodgy about it. You're lying to our faces!" She accused, louder than she intended, Rose was sure. "You ran off with that older bloke 'cause he had money. Probably drugs, too! You were his personal whore, and didn't want any of us to know!"  
Rose felt her blood boil. The other girls were looking at her, their eyes suspicious. They wanted proof, wanted a rebuttal. But Keisha wasn't done yet.  
"He's a nutter, that one. I met him!" She turned to each girl, "A skinny, rich nutter! I've seen how he looks at you, Rose, you can't hide it! And yet where is he now, huh? Answer me that, you b-"  
"I'm done." Rose slammed her glass on the table, near tears. Bad mouthing her? After everything? After all those attempts at mending bridges? No amount of alcohol could justify this. No amount of history was worth this. And she was badmouthing the doctor, who nearly gave his life for humanity for the umpteenth time to save the crew of The Ascendant. To save Keisha's brother. To save the world.  
How dare she?  
"I'm going back to my room. I don't need this." She was internally incredibly proud of her current state of self control. A quivering lower lip and moist eyes, no yelling back, no screaming match.  
"I'm sorry you all feel this way. I really am. I thought we were mates and I thought you believed me-" Her voice cracked, and she ran. So much for that self-control. She thought she heard Shauna call out after her, but she ran and ran until she was back in her room. She threw herself on the bed and cried until alcohol and tears drained her of consciousness.

* * *

Chapter one, here you go! I hope you like it so far. I should have the next chapter sometime early next week. Tuesday maybe? This is planned as a short story, but I said that before and they ended up novellas. :D

It's been a long time since I posted anything here... O_o I wonder if anyone remembers me?


	2. Chapter 2

She woke up to a persistent knocking on the door. She hadn't drank enough to have a hangover, but she had certainly drank too little to forget yesterday's events. She was still in her clothes from the evening prior, and her face felt puffy and dirty and her mouth parched.  
She rose up at the knocking, wondering if it would be childish to ignore it or yell 'go away'.  
"Who is it?" She demanded instead, still curled up over the covers on the bed.  
"It's Roger."  
She got up, glanced at herself in the mirror. She was a mess, dried mascara running down her face and her complexion pallid. She called out that she needed a sec, and washed her face and hands in the bathroom.  
What was she going to do? What if she was being asked to leave? It was Saturday morning, and she'd have no where to stay and no money and no nothing until Sunday when (and if) the doctor showed up.  
Still, Mickey and her mum will be here in... she glanced at the alarm clock by the bed. It was almost 9am, so they'd be here in about half an hour.  
When she felt there wasn't really anything else to do right now to improve her appearance, she opened the door.  
Roger stood there, blinking hard at the light the streamed from the eastwards windows behind her. She cracked a half-grin. Must have been one hell of a party last night.  
She let him in and closed the door firmly behind her.  
In her mind there were a couple of directions this could go, so she turned to lean on the door and wait until he spoke.  
He sat down at the little dining table, same spot he sat in yesterday. There was a long moment of silence as he blinked hard and rubbed his face there, then ran his hand over the fuzz of his close-cropped hair.  
"...Rose."  
She waited. He sounded tired, stressed. Whatever he was here to say, Keisha should have probably come to say herself.  
"Sorry about last night."  
"Is it you saying it, or Keisha?" She finally shoved herself off the door and went to pour herself a glass of water. On second thought she poured one for him, too. It's wasn't his fault. None of this was even remotely his fault.  
He thanked her and drank greedily.  
"It's from her. She was a mess when I came back last night. Kept on crying through the door on how she didn't mean it."  
Rose felt only the merest twinge of compassion. "Why isn't she here, then?" She said, then bit her lower lip. This was their wedding day. She was asking Keisha to come apologize instead of prepare for her own wedding?  
"She's afraid you wouldn't have let her in. Said something about... boot camp?"  
Boot camp?  
Oh, a couple of months before she met the doctor Keisha and her went to one of those exercise camps. Rose was hitting on a cute guy (she couldn't recall almost anything about him), but Keisha, jealous, 'accidentally' shoved her in the pool. Rose spent the rest of the day in a huff, refusing to look at her friend or talk to her.  
"I'm not like that anymore." She said tiredly. When she met Roger's eyes, he seemed sympathetic and apologetic and nervous that he was getting married in two hours.  
Married. To her old friend. A friend that other than the incident with The Ascendant and now, she had scarcely spoken two words to in as many years. She took in a deep breath, let it out just as slowly.  
"You know what?" Rose said, smiling tiredly, "Tell her it's all good."  
His brows shot up. "Wha'? Are you su-?"  
"Yeah." She sighed, feeling old. What Keisha said yesterday... didn't matter. None of it did. The doctor mattered. She had felt bad that so much of her was now tied to him, but now, sitting here, she realized that it was ok. People kept telling her these days that 'you didn't need a man', that a woman dependant on a man was less of a woman, that she was weak.  
He wasn't her weakness, he was her strength. Was it wrong to love? To want to hold on to that person you loved? How was fighting alongside him, loving every moment of it, made her weak?  
"Yeah." She said again, with more conviction. "Yeah, she was drunk and still angry at how I disappeared. I get that. But this is her day," She was surprised herself when the smile on her face became genuine, "This is her wedding day. Whatever happened yesterday, that was a different Keish, yeah? The new one starts today."  
Sort of like Keisha was regenerating, she laughed inside. Even if Keisha will never change, it was ok. If she got drunk again, and got belligerent, well, Rose wasn't going to be there anymore. She had her own life now and Keisha's opinion or thoughts about it didn't even enter into it. It was a sad state, perhaps, but she couldn't bring herself to feel it was sad at all.  
Roger's face showed such compassion. "You're a very good person." He said, filled with honesty.  
She just shrugged, "Not really," She laughed a little. She had faced Daleks and the end of the universe on more than one occasion. It helped put things in perspective. What was important, what wasn't.

Roger left after a few more pleasantries, and she told him to assure Keisha (through her room door, as they weren't allowed to see each other), that Rose didn't remember much from yesterday and that all is forgotten and forgiven.  
It wasn't true, really. She remember and it wasn't about forgiveness, but about relevance. Keisha... She was becoming irrelevant.  
It wasn't that she didn't want anything to do with her old life. It's not like she was going never to see any of her old friends again or that they didn't matter to her, they did. It was becoming simply that she no longer defined her worth by their opinions. It was a good thing, and it made her smile as she rounded the corner from the hotel to the parking lot. Behind that lane of trees, tomorrow, the doctor will come back.  
Time had allowed some of her anxiety of his return to ebb, as well as calm her anger at the insufferable Time Lord.  
The morning was wet. It hadn't rained but the dispersing fog and lingering dew was splashing on her feet from her open shoes just walking through the manicured grass. It was refreshing, and when the sun peeked from behind a lonely cloud it seemed like the world was decorated in diamonds. The leaves, the grass, people's shoes and the cars in the parking lot as she approached.  
The area was a scene of much mirth, with most of the guests showing up that morning. She glanced around to see if she could detect Mickey's car, but instead noticed Fred, Tanika and Shauna, all immediately starting after her when she turned hastily to leave.  
"Rose!" Cried Shauna, catching up quicker than Rose would like. Setting her face passive, she turned to face her friend.  
"I'm so sorry, Rose." Shauna said, and Rose was surprised to find tears in the girl's eyes. "I'm so so sorry!" She threw her hands around her neck and sobbed into her shoulder.  
"It's- It's alright!" She found herself chuckling, patting her friend on the back. Tanika and both Freds (her and her husband) approached as well, all looking guilty and apologetic. They pried Shauna off and took turns apologizing.  
"We believe you travelled." Said Tanika awkwardly, "The way you handled it last night... You've really grown, and you made us all realize how stupid we were being. Sorry."  
Rose's toothy grin was genuine and she laughed and accepted their apologies.  
"Do we get to meet him?" Fred (her) asked with a gentle smile, trying to make peace, "This illustrious companion of yours?"  
Internally Rose thought it strange that he was the companion and she the leader, but for her friends, she was.  
"I don't think so. He had other stuff he had to do today." She still felt a pang of regret. Her old life, her life before she met him. Didn't he want to see it? Be a part of it?  
She knew why he didn't. Couldn't ever force him to face it, either.  
"Where's Mickey and my mum?" She asked as a way to veer conversation away from awkwardness and apologies.  
"Not here yet." Confirmed Fred (him), with his arm over Fred (her). "Mickey said he'd bring me the laptop he's fixing for me, so I've been asking around." He was almost a head taller than his wife, with the airs of accomplishment backed by nothing. He was nice enough, but always found ways to have other people do stuff for him and claim it is an achievement.  
"I'll give'im a call. Wedding ought to start in an hour and I'm not even changed yet." She said, taking out her mobile and waving it around as if to prove that this is what it could do.  
She thanked everyone and stepped away, only to see Rog's best man striding towards her with a smile. She was blond and available for long enough to know what that swagger and that smile meant, and she had already met his eyes, so she couldn't very well pretend she hadn't seen him.  
Instead she pressed her mobile to her ear and waved amicably at him, walking away towards the lane for some privacy. She hadn't actually dialed yet, and felt a little bad about the deception. But hey! She was on the phone, the universal 'do not disturb' sign.  
She rounded the trees and returned to that little cute village. The blue box made her smile again, and, thumbing through her contacts to find Mickey's mobile number, she tried the handle of the faux TARDIS. Wouldn't hurt to hide away for a moment from the world, in case the best man was coming round.  
The handle gave way, slippery and cold from the early morning dew. Some drops dislodged from the frame and dripped on her head and phone screen as she entered. She shook the device clear of the water, climbed the ramp.  
Phone boxes didn't have ramps.  
She exclaimed in surprise to find herself inside the real TARDIS.  
This box was here when they landed! Mind racing wordlessly through a million possibilities.  
It was the TARDIS, no doubt about it. What was it doing here since... well, since before they got here?  
And how did the door open without her key? Did she instinctively unlock it, without thinking? She looked down at her free hand. It wasn't wet with dew, it was blood.

.

Shoving the phone into her pocket without a second thought, she concentrated on calming her breathing and looking around. The lights seemed dimmer as the door closed behind her. The machine was humming normally, like the breathing of some ancient, half mechanical dragon in slumber.  
"Doctor?" She called. The room did not answer.  
It looked just like her TARDIS, like she left it yesterday. There was her jeans jacket draped on the railing. The only thing that was missing was the Time Lord himself, as the controls were deserted.  
Wait, what was that?  
Something shiny glinted on the console, just on the other side of the central tube. For the better part the myriad of buttons and levers were too old to sparkle, so this anomaly drew her attention.  
It looked like a large jade egg, resting on a panel between a rounded lever and a big nobbly button. And there...!  
A dusty trainer and a leg!  
She rushed over to find the doctor sprawled on the hard metallic floor, just under the green crystal egg and almost entirely under the controls. He was on his back, arms splayed as though he just collapsed in mid action. Head leaned listlessly to the side, away from the controls.  
There was blood. Oh, god, there was blood. His suit jacket was torn, especially at the arms and chest, with dark stains around each tear. His face was haggard and pale, his lips tinted blue. Rose only realized she had stopped breathing when her lungs started protesting. She inhaled a shaky breath, kneeling at his side.  
"Doctor! Doctor! Don't you dare! Don't you dare do this to me!" She called, patting him on the cheeks. He felt cold, ice cold. He didn't wake, but proved his hearts were still beating when he moaned and rolled his head away from her hand, brows coming together for just a moment.  
"Doctor!" She gingerly lifted his head off the cold floor, wincing as she felt warm liquid through his hair, too. Her other hand was on his cheek, caressing and patting.  
His eyes then did flicker open. His unfocused, glazed eyes settled on her own. Neither said a word for a moment, then his brows furrowed again. He made no effort to get up or even twitch a muscle.  
"Rose, you're crying," He said, his voice was soft, worried.  
"Yeah, I got scared there, for a moment." She forced a smile, caressing his cold, cold cheek.  
"It's alright," He said. He seemed totally unconcerned with his current state, as though they were just chatting over who's turn it is to get chips, "Everything's alright." He assured, "I'll protect you. Always."  
And his eyes rolled in his head and his head lolled against her hands.  
She shouted his name, but he seemed completely unresponsive now. Tears were running down her cheeks, but this didn't stop her from doing what she needed to do.  
She bustled back and forth, bringing the duvet from her room on the TARDIS. She had no idea if the doctor ever slept when he wasn't injured, so didn't know if he had a room to drag him to. Her room was down a flight of stairs, and she wasn't planning on dragging his injured form down stairs. She figured it couldn't be beneficial to whatever injuries he had sustained.  
Spreading the duvet on the floor, she rolled the doctor unto it. Her breath hitched and she blinked fresh tears out of her eyes when she saw tears on the back of his pinstriped suit as well as on the front, circles of blood soaked into the fabric. He was completely limp against her urgings, and it scared her to her very core. Whenever she touched exposed skin the cold would chill her heart until she felt it would shatter altogether. Her hands were smeared and stained by the time she was done, and her breathing was hiccupped and gasping. When she was finally done maneuvering his frail frame onto the blanket, she brought every sheet and blanket she could find. A couple she made into a pillow, and the rest she layered on top of him.  
A cloth and a basin of water were her only tools of healing, and she cleaned the blood from his broken lip and his forehead, and ran it over the short hairs on the back of his head. The cloth returned red at first, but after the second pass or so it came back pink, then just wet. She counted her blessings.  
She had determined to remove his shirts and inspect the damage, but found herself suddenly coy. Her fingers twitching just a inch away from the top button, resting in the little hollow of his neck between his collarbones.  
This was the doctor. She could shove him playfully and press her lips to his. She could throw her arms around his neck and hold him for hours, feeling his twin hearts against her single one and never tire of the novelty of it. But she never undressed him. Never found his room. Was never let in, in that way. When he regenerated and fell sick it was her mother who took control. Rose fumbled for her phone in her pocket- maybe her mum and Mickey were here and could come and help! - but when she stared at it she got another shock- the time.  
She had 10 minutes until the ceremony started. It took her the better part of an hour to fix up the doctor...!  
It would only take a moment's jog and she'd be there with 9 minutes to spare.  
Keisha's wedding, the reason she was here, now.  
There was nothing more she could do for the doctor. And she had 8 minutes to decide.  
There was nothing more she could do for the doctor. He wasn't even supposed to be here until tomorrow!

The jacket was the easy part to remove, and the tie easier still. Her twitching, nervous fingers hesitated at the first button of his shirt. What if we woke up? He'd never let her live it down. He'd grasp her hands as they fumbled down his shirt, give her that smile that came with the quirk of his head to one side, where he'd look at her and just be happy to have her with him. Like she was special and he just thought it was Brilliant with a popping, capital 'B'. A tug on her hands would be all it would take for her to succumb to the temptation of those thin lips...  
But the second button came off and nothing. She could feel his chest rise and fall so slightly, feel the breath from his nose on her fingers when she loosened his collar, pulled the shirt out of his pants. She knew she was blushing, and there was nothing she could do about it.  
Blood had made the sleeves a pain to disentangle from his thin wrists, and he kept on drooping to one side or the other as she sat him up. Each time she caught him and felt the chill of his skin. It took several frustrating moments, tugging at the blood-soaked sleeves before she remembered men's dress shirts had cufflinks and it took several tries at that to get her smeared hands to flick them open.  
When she laid him back down, shirtless, her heart broke a little more;  
His arms were covered in cuts and bruises, purple stains painted over with blood. His chest a veritable garden of blue and purple blossoms, one especially painful looking at the lower end of the right side of his rib cage. With shaking hands she emptied the sullied water in the basin and refilled it, returning with the cloth to dab and caress pale skin.

It felt like ages, but it was only hours later when she woke herself up from her daydreaming (although she would call it day-nightmaring), sitting beside him on the floor, her high-heel shoes set aside and her knees drawn up to her chin. She was hugging her legs, rocking back and forth absently and just wishing so hard that he would wake up and be ok and not be in this situation.  
She stared at the deceptively youthful face, wondering what had happened and how could she have let him go off alone. His expression was relaxed, almost too relaxed, like he was dead, like after he regenerated and he just lay there, dying.  
Just in case she had a now cold cup of tea beside him.  
The TARDIS hummed around them, the only sound other than her pitiful sniffing. The crying has long since passed, and she felt terrible; drained, scared and alone.  
What had woken her from her depressed-staring-into-space was movement from the corner of her eye. The doctor was shivering. Slightly, but even as she looked it intensified. He was covered up to his nose in the blankets, and when she touched the back of her fingers to his cheek and forehead he felt... warmer. Still cold, still so very cold, but warmer.  
She had seen something like this on TV, on that show with the guy who went and taught you how to survive in the wild. Hypothermia.  
Where the hell had he gone alone?!  
Without hesitation this time, she lifted a corner of the stack of blankets and scooted, on her back, until their sides touched.  
She thought it would be too warm, but even through her pants and on her bare arms she could feel the unnatural coolness of his skin. They've touched before. Plenty of times, but he wasn't sleeping, which was rare enough, and it just felt so... strange.  
He moaned loudly in pain. She flinched over to her side, away from him, thinking she must have hurt him, but he followed, rolling onto his side after her and scooping her in his arm across her stomach. She squeaked in surprise as she felt him possessively press against her, his cool skin pressed against her back, his bruised arm clutching so tightly at the fabric at front of her shirt. Drinking in her heat, his cold nose right under her ear, and each breath tickled her and sent shivers down her spine. Shivers quite the opposite of the cold that was wracking his body. He was still soundly out.  
The blankets were so warm, his skin so cool...

* * *

Chapter 2! The doctor getting in trouble? _Never_. :) Chapter 3 should be up on Saturday/Sunday.

I was originally considering making this two chapters, but they would have been too short, individually, and darn unsatisfying! :)

I want to thank SittingOnTheEdgeOfTheUnivers e, traversing, kaylala, InvisiblePuppeteer and Sara for the reviews! I love reviews and I always try to give people who take the time to cheer me on a nod! :D

See you all soon!


	3. Chapter 3

She woke up with a start.  
She was so relaxed a moment ago, the heat so very soothing. Her eyes darted this way and that, startled at something she couldn't quite place.  
She was lying down on the floor of the TARDIS control room, cushioned only by the duvet, snuggled deep in blankets and blankets and there were a couple of coats there, too, lying on top of the heap.  
A warm hand was on her belly. Not over the shirt, but under it.  
"In my defence," The doctor said lightly, and she could hear the smile in his voice, "I have no clue how this happened."  
"Doctor!" She sat up, her face lighting up as she turned, leaning on her elbows. Immediately she regretted moving. How often did the doctor spoon her? She felt the ghost of his hand on her stomach, and it woke up a rabble of butterflies therein.  
He was looking up at her, a goofy, toothy smile beaming back to her. Relief washed over her, and her vision blurred again momentarily. She wiped the tears away, and when she looked at him, his expression sobered.  
"Rose," He said seriously, "Before I break the rules of time, when's the last time I saw you?"  
"Friday." She answer, not able to remove her grin off her face. "You dropped me off at Keisha's wedding. What timeline are you from?"  
He nodded, looking away and tugging at the blankets where her sitting was exposing his skin to the air. "Good, right, yes. Of course. Right timeline, then. Good."  
She wanted to mention that this TARDIS had been there from before they arrived, but figured she'd wait to see how he was first. His eyes looked as clear as ever, even if they weren't meeting hers. Then she remembered their sort-of-argument when last they spoke and her smile faded.  
"Honestly, doctor, if you get yourself so beaten up just to get my attention-"  
"Egg!" He shouted, bolting to a sitting position. He immediately doubled over, hands clutching at his chest. Rose was beside in him a blink, one hand on his back, the other on his shoulder, supporting him. He nodded, "I'm fine." He said, giving her another smile. Some of his teeth painted pink with blood.  
Then his eye glanced at her hand and he drew back, immediately grasping her bloody hands in his.  
"Rose!"  
"I'm alright!" She protested, trying to draw her hands back, but his grip was persistent. He licked her palm, and she wasn't surprised that she was no longer surprised at what he licked, or what he could deduce from licking things. It brought a line of thinking that this was definitely not the right time for.  
"It's mine." He said, almost as if he didn't understand how his blood got there.  
"Yeah."  
"Egg!" He exclaimed again, throwing off the blankets and clambering unsteadily, but quickly to his feet. He leaned on the console for support and grabbed the strange crystal, Rose ever at his side in case he stumbled. It was about the size of her head, and a deep, beautiful green. It stood on a base of jutting crystals of the same color. The facets were large, but the whole shape was distinctly egg-like.  
"What is that? What did it do to you?"  
"No nono, it didn't do this." He tilted his head to one side, sitting back down on the duvets, holding it with both his hands and looking positively fascinated with it. He put it to his ear and listened a long moment, then, seemingly satisfied, put it down.  
The doctor then looked at her a long moment, face uncertain.  
"So," He said, noticing for the first time that he was shirtless, and really taking in Rose's sorry state of dishevelment. "Tell me what happened to you while I was away." He said, his eyes getting that seriousness in them that made her wonder at times which doctor was the real one, the goof or the storm.  
"Me tell you?!" She almost laughed in incredulity, "I think you owe me an explanation first!"  
He tugged at his ear, looking away, "Naaah," He drawled, "My story isn't interesting in the slightest." Then he bobbed his head left and right, "Weeell, maybe not 'in the slightest' but 'dull'... maybe not so much 'dull' as 'hardly worth telling', really'-"  
"Doctor," She stopped him before his rant train could properly leave the station, "I came 'round and found the TARDIS here! You scared me, doctor." She said the last bit with a smile, but he saw right through her. Not that she ever really hid anything from him, either.  
"It was a simple case of a thermal gaseous lifeform being in the wrong place at the wrong time." He started explaining, as if it would ease her worries. "If I had a doubloon for each time that happened..." At her blank expression he started elaborating,  
"You see," He lifted the egg up, let her touch it. It was warm. "This is a Reeth dragon egg."  
"A dragon?"  
"Not like the ones you had on Earth, no." He dismissed with certainty. She opened her mouth to say that dragons weren't a real Earth creature, but gave up before she started.  
"Much like yours that were hunted to extinction," She rolled her eyes, he frowned. "Oi, they were great beasts, they were!" Then he carried on, "These," He lifted the egg again, shook it a little, "These are gaseous creatures that feed off heat- any heat." He gestured around. "Body heat, kettles, cars, gysers, cats, you name it."  
She caressed the strange egg, feeling as though it had a little fluttering heartbeat inside.  
"But they're all but gone now." He said with the same melancholy the sentence always invoked. "Just this egg left. But you see, it's pretty, oh yes." He threw his head back and complained, "You humans; 'it's pretty therefore it's ours and therefore we can just stick it on the mantle and forget about it.'" Rose couldn't help but smile. As much as he ragged on humans, he loved them dearly, this alien of hers.  
"So the little guy inside travels with the 'owners' to their new home, but this place is frigid. Cold as anything, cold as- as- the center your mum's worst pies."  
"Oi!" She protested, laughing as she did.  
"So this itty-bitty Reeth starts seeking out any warmth it can, starts out with the fireplace but when that's out he goes to the next warmest thing around."  
"People." She stated, worried about the doctor. How does he get himself into those situations?  
He nodded excitedly. "No people on their original homeworld. Lava and gysers and three great big suns." His fingers gestured with each; up-explosions for lava, down-fingers-spread for sunlight. "So people start dying 'cause it sucks out all the wamrth. It's just a baby! It doesn't know it's hurting them," He said. "Then of course I come along and I know a Reeth dragon egg when I see one, so I talk to it, I says 'I've got two hearts and warmth to spare!' and then it says 'sounds great!' and we're off our merry way."  
"So it lied to you?"  
"What? No!" He blinked his confusion at her, then saw that her eyes were scanning his bruised chest, "Oh, that." He shook his head, dismissing her notion, "No, no no... Apparently when a Reeth dragon is, well, inside someone, drinking up all that juicy heat, they... umm... are still somewhat on the visible spectrum."  
Rose has seen enough to make a guess, "You glowed green or something?"  
"Or something," He nodded. "The locals thought I was the one killing people, or a ghost or something, and well..." He trailed off nonchalant, shrugging again.  
"You got mobbed?"  
"Pitchforks and everything!" He gave her a brilliant smile, "Haven't had that happen in years!"  
"You're daft, you are." She laughed because it beat crying. "So where's the Reeth dragon now? Inside there?"  
"Yeah." He peered into it, as if he could see anything through the translucent gem-like shell. "It's warm enough for now. Promised I'll take it to Ui-ui Beta- plenty of warmth and a hundred percent less angry mobs!"  
"Oi-oi Beta?"  
"Ui-Ui," He corrected, "With less Oi and more Oui."  
"Yes-Yes Beta?"  
"Oui!" They laughed a little, because it wasn't all that funny but when your best friend says it in that way you love, you can't help but laugh.  
"Are you ready to head out?" He asked, smiling brilliantly, "Want to see Yes-Yes Beta?"  
She swallowed with some difficulty. There willl be hell to pay when she came back, no doubt about it. Her mum would be furious that she didn't show up, and Mickey will be quietly disappointed that she chose the doctor (again) over her friends, and Keisha would never speak with her again and her friends will think she was a hypocrite for saying everything was alright and then bailing...  
"What's wrong?" The doctor asked at her silence, frowning. He placed the egg down on the console and stepped up to her to put still-cold hands on her shoulders. "Sorry to have scared you." He smiled softly.  
"You-" She shook her head, made sure her expression was the delight for his safety and not her own petty worries, "I'm just glad you're alright. What if I had only come by here Sunday?" She tried to put some teasing into her voice, but didn't quite manage it. "You'd have been on the floor, all alone for days!"  
"Wait, what day is it? Isn't it Sunday?" His brows twitched together as if trying to discern what day it was from the smell of the air. For all she knew he could.  
"Saturday." She answered, "Saturday afternoon, but listen, the TARDIS- This TARDIS- was here when we arrived yesterday!"  
"I was aiming for Sunday on the way back," the doctor confirmed, only now removing his hands from her shoulders and ruffling his impossible hair, "Didn't want to worry ye, didn't think I was that bad off...I guess I must have arrived too early, and underestimated my- Well-. I didn't want to be late, so I tried for early." He concluded. Then the penny dropped and he froze.  
"Saturday afternoon?!" He met her gaze, trepidation in his, "Please tell me the ceremony was lovely."  
"The ceremony was lovely." She parroted obediently, with a sad little smile at his concern.  
"Oh, no! No no nonono...!" He alternated between pacing around frantically and stopping to face her, arms going up as if he had some protest, then dropping again in favor of pacing and rubbing at his crazy hair with both hands.  
"It's alright, doctor." She tried to console him. She didn't really feel like ever facing the fallout of this, and a part of her wanted to run away and never ever return.  
"No, this is very not good." He said, "I didn't do this on purpose, mind." He paced some more, frazzled, "You were going to do your dull human thing, and I was trying to be all huffy about it! How very Ninth of me." She chuckled at the mention of his previous incarnation. "I didn't mean to do this!" He protested again, and she closed the distance between to lay a hand on his arm. Still shirtless, and Rose felt she could get used to the view, sans bruises. The thin muscles under pale, smooth skin. She snapped her gaze back to his eyes when it started wondering too low, and her imagination started filling out things in her mind.  
"Rose," He grabbed her shoulders again, and she resisted the urge to hug him, he was ok. That was really all that mattered.  
"Have you, since you entered the TARDIS, called anyone or had any contact with the outside world? Even just a peek-a-boo outside?"  
"Umm... No." She shook her head, "Before I came in I checked if my mum and Mickey were here yet, and they aren't-weren't, which was odd. That was the last thing I did." He pulled her into a big hug, which she returned all too eagerly.  
"Rose Tyler." He murmured happily, and her innards melted into a puddle of contentedness. "Where would I be without you?" He pulled back all too quickly. "Get ready." He beamed at her, then rushed off.

* * *

Hee! He's not one to let injury stop him. I think I liked The Feast of the Drowned a lot because the doctor does get injured in it. I think it's really interesting to see such a man, who hardly ever gets physically hurt, deal with physical pain.

I wanted to thank SittingOnTheEdgeOfTheUnivers e again for commenting, as well as InvisiblePuppeteer! And also thank you Rose-Tyler-district-12. :D I love reviews, so...!

You can expect next chapter... Tuesday, I hope. It'll be the last chapter, unless this is really well received and I feel like continuing it. :)

Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

The TARDIS screamed into existence, a sound like a key against a piano string.

It was far away from the wedding. "Well, 'far' is relative." the doctor concluded, stepping down to the side of the road they had parked on. It was a highway in the middle of swaying grass hills. Nothing for miles. The misty hills of northern England mid-morning. He was back in his coat and suit, hands in his pocket and his gait meandering as he and Rose approached the stranded car. Most of his injuries were covered up, but Rose knew it would take a while to heal, even with him.

"Oi! Oooi!" Mickey jumped up and down as a car zoomed passed, disregarding the stranded automobile. He and Jackie Taylor were on the gravel shoulder of the road, Mickey's Mini-Cooper dead and the lid popped up. The pair had their back to the advancing doctor and companion, and Jackie shouted at Micky.

"We're going to be late! It's almost nine thirty! What kind of mechanic are ye, anyway?!" She slapped his arm. Another car approached, and she shoved him out of the way to stick her foot out on the asphalt and hike her skirt up, then waved at the driver. Mickey went back to leaning above the smoking engine.

They didn't stop, but did honk as they sped by, yelling something best left half-heard. Jackie responded with profanities in their wake, turning to follow the car and finally seeing the doctor and Rose as they approached.

"Oh my god! Mickey, look!" Mickey pulled his head out from the hood of the car and his face split into a relieved grin.

"How did you find us?" Jackie gave Rose a big hug, then grabbed the doctor's sleeve as greeting. She did that, he didn't ask anymore. "Can you believe it? Mickey's cell ran out of power, and my stupid plan only works in greater London! That's the last time I go with those Pay as You Go folk!"

"Oooh," The doctor tugged at his ear, looking around casually, "A simple triangulation of the genetic resonance." He smiled her her, "If nothing else it confirms that you share fifty percent of the genetic markers! No Shtrood children for you!"

"Wha-?" Jackie looked at her daughter for explanation, but the latter could only smile and shrug.

"All aboard!" He was already heading back towards the TARDIS.

"Calm down, Keish!" Fred urged, holding the bride's long train. Keisha was practically buzzing where she stood.

When the music started, and she walked down the aisle, though, she was the picture of serenity.

"It's shock." Whispered the doctor, leaning over to Rose on the folding chairs. "Like watching a train wreck. That's why they call it a train, you know."

It was a beautiful day for a wedding. The sun high in the sky with just enough clouds to ease the rising heat. The morning mists parted and a clear blue-skied and green-grassed day loomed large. Mickey, Jackie, Rose and the Doctor were sitting in the folding chairs, somewhere in the front-middle of the throng of "you humans" who had gathered that day. The doctor had been fidgety since they arrived, and now lounged almost entirely slouched off the chair, long legs sticking under the chair in front of him and his hands crossed across his chest. His thumbs twiddled constantly.

The ceremony was outside, at the perfectly manicured garden, with the perfectly manicured trees. The bride marched regally down the middle of the crowd towards a raised gazebo.

Rose shushed the doctor for the umpteenth time. He was determined to commentate on the mating rituals of the locals.

"The ring- what an idea! It's a sign of ownership, you know-"

"Shh!"

And then when the vows were being read,

"'Husband', I mean, just think about it. 'Animal husbandry' is a type of husband-"

"Shutit!"

She forgot what trying to get the doctor to sit still was like.

Rose cried when they said 'I do' and kissed, and for once even the doctor had no comment, but a melancholy sort of look.

.

"So are you going to dance with me, or what?" She slipped her arm into the nook of his. In one hand he had a drink and the other was tucked into his tux pocket. It was a slate-grey tuxedo the he claimed to have picked up on Vermillion 7. It looked darker the more somber the mood became, so throughout the ceremony it was black, and now a cloudy blue-grey.

Her outfit complimented his, with a shimmering knee-length dress with tassels and only one sleeve. It looked like a strange mix of the swinging twenties and the far future. The silvery scales that adored the dress were made in some alien world to perfectly reflect colors close-by. When she had danced with Roger, her dress flashed midnight, when she danced with Mickey she reflected his navy-blue rental tux like a metallic dark ocean. Dancing with Keish, she sparkled like freshly fallen snow.

And then, when the doctor finally put down his drink and stepped up to dance with her, his grey reflected silver on silver. Didn't change her. Would never want to change her, to impose a different color on her. The color of his gaiety was whatever color she was, whatever mood, wherever she went.

* * *

Well, I completely miscounted the chapter separation, and this little nub of a chapter is all I had left to say about this... The original concept for the story ends here. This concludes the idea I wanted to share. However, I am honestly considering continuing this, and working on more content, so I hope you'll enjoy. I actually don't have a time estimate for the next chunk, it depends on how much time I have to working on it coming up. Either way, I hope you liked it so far and will like what I want to continue this with! :D

I love long, winding comments, so feel free to leave some! ;) Also I wanted to thank SittingOnTheEdgeOfTheUnivers e, DarkestAngel11, Emily Kattalakis and sleeping-cath so much for commenting on my latest chapter. :) You made me want to continue this story! Thanks!


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